Our House

April 29, 2013

With spring here, everything seems to be growing – especially the grass.

When there is a lot of snow in the winter, our neighbor comes over and uses his snow blower on our driveway. That means in the spring there is quite a bit of stone overthrow in the grass. Mowing over the stone is tricky, because it's possible to throw one at a car or house window. Raking all that stone back into the driveway is no fun. So I came up with a solution.

Using this old shop vac to collect the stone has been a time-saver. Just plug it in and start to vac.

Every once-in-a-while open it up, and dump the stone back into the driveway.

Now I'm not sure what people thought, who were driving by watching me vacuum my lawn, but it saved me hours of raking. Lazy? Maybe. I'd like to think of it as innovative, because let's face it, we always need to give credit where credit is due, even if it means patting ourselves on the back a bit!

January 31, 2013

I am off for a little adventure tomorrow (remember, I mentioned how important it is to have adventure in your life!) In preparation, I am gathering clothes to take with me. And this is how I once again encountered the mystery of where socks go.

You see 5 single socks in the picture. I know there are 5 that match these somewhere in this house. The question is, "Where!!!"

How many pairs of socks do we really need? I supposed it depends on the types of shoes you wear throughout the week. Thinner for dressier shoes, medium for clogs, heavy for boots and white athletic for your running shoes. So let's say 15 max. So 5 missing is HUGE.

I have found a sock here and a sock there, stuck to towels, still in the bottom leg of my jeans, on the dryer ledge that you can not see when you open it, on the front top side of the washer (where you're too lazy to lean over and look and far too many other places to mention. But these 5? Vansihed.

With time on my hands these days, I found myself tearing apart drawers and shelves looking for them. Nope. Nowhere. So what should I do? Certainly not what I've done before when I've found a stray. Throw it away, only to have its mate miracuously appear 3 days later when the trash has been emptied, and is no longer available to search through?

For the moment, they're back in the drawer. You might think I'm crazy, but I can assure you if you go and look in your own sock drawer, you'll find unmatched socks you couldn't bear to throw away, because you just knew the mate would show up if you did!

May 23, 2011

I was looking outside to see if there were any newcomers on the bird feeders. Sometimes during spring migration, you might be lucky enough to spot birds that you don't usually see, because they're just passing through to their summer homes.

Spotting a blue bird on the feeder, I just couldn't figure out why a bird that eats bugs was eating sunflowers. I got the binoculars, and I couldn't believe it. An Indigo Bunting was sitting on the feeder munching away. I have only ever seen one, and that was on a hike far away from houses and people.

Here is the photo I took.

Here is a photo I found, just so (in case you've never seen one) you can get the full effect of the blue.

I'm starting to think that this bird might be the only blue I'm going to see for a while. Just like so many of you on the east coast, the skies have been nothing but gray for far too long. Hmmm, maybe this Indigo Bunting is a sign of better things to come. We can only hope!!

April 03, 2011

Progress! The wall in the soon-to-be bathroom was removed yesterday in preparation for the sink and medicine cabinet to be installed. Because the bathroom is so small, we decided to insert them into part of the wall between the guest room/office, where the washer and dryer used to be.

I know I've mentioned this before, but there sure have been some surprising wall colors that show up when construction happens. Notice the dark green wall on the inside of the closet. Aren't closets dark enough with out dark green paint?

Not enough time today to put up sheet rock, so that will have to move to another day. There is still much to do, but it certainly is hopeful seeing so much happening.

March 13, 2011

You might remember me posting a picture at the start of our laundry room project earlier this year.

I'm happy to report that the washing machine, as I post, is happily washing a load of laundry. The resident DIYer aka "Handyman Nick" has almost finished the laundry room. Only a few minor things are left to do.

The dryer isn't downstairs yet, so it means taking laundry upstairs to be dried. But we are soooooo close to having it completed. Next stop, finishing the bathroom on the main floor.